biteho.com

The first-ever Apex Legends battle pass, this one for Season 1–Wild Frontier–released earlier this week. It clearly takes some inspiration from the battle passes popularized by Fortnite, and much like the ones offered by Epic, EA and Respawn have designed Apex’s so that it can pay for itself, provided you play enough.

The Season 1 battle pass costs 950 Apex Coins. You can also buy a bundle for 2,800 Apex Coins that includes the battle pass and gives you a head start by advancing you through 25 levels of battle pass progression (and unlocking the corresponding rewards). The pass itself includes a variety of rewards–such as skins, stat trackers, Legend voice lines, and Apex Coin and XP drops–with rewards unlocked by earning XP.

More importantly, you can actually earn 1,000 Apex Coins in total through the battle pass, which, EA notes in a blog post, can be “put towards unlocking the next Battle Pass.” Alternatively, you could put it toward unlocking a character, such as the new Legend, Octane. Whatever the case, if you level up the battle pass enough, you can make back the Apex Coins it costs to buy it in the first place.

The battle pass essentially gives players a second set of rewards to earn alongside those you get by leveling up your player profile. Whether or not you buy Octane or Apex Legends’ new battle pass, Season 1 lets you unlock some rewards for free: 18 new stat trackers, five Apex Packs, and a new skin for Octane. Although your battle pass level is separate from your player level, they are both increased by playing matches and earning XP. There are no Fortnite-style challenge to complete, although Respawn has suggested that future seasons may work differently and that it’s open to feedback from players.

Octane, the ninth and newest Legend to join Respawn’s battle royale game, is also out now. Octane is not a part of the battle pass though, and you’ll need to buy him with additional Legend Tokens or Apex Coins. Much like Mirage and Caustic, Octane will cost 12,000 Legend Tokens or 750 Apex Coins.

If you’re playing Apex Legends on PC or Xbox One, you might have a cheaper option for picking up Octane or the battle pass. Origin Access and EA Access, respectively, provide subscribers with 1,000 free Apex Coins in addition to a few other rewards. As such, if you aren’t already a member, you can subscribe for one month and get that bonus for less money than you’d spend on 1,000 Apex Coins

With the Epic Store growing in influence, we’re seeing a number of games–including Hades and the PC releases for Metro Exodus and The Division 2–release as exclusives on the new online marketplace. Another game launching as an Epic Store exclusive is The Cycle, coming from Yager Entertainment–the same developers behind Spec Ops: The Line and 2018’s multiplayer combat-sim Dreadnought. With the full rollout planned later this year, The Cycle will be Yager’s first self-published game, it blends PvE gameplay with the pace of an online shooter.

The developers explained why they felt the game was such a good fit for the Epic Store, crediting the success of Fortnite and flexibility of the Unreal Engine for online games. As a live game, Yager has plans to work on The Cycle for the long-term, adding in new content and features over its lifetime.

“We wanted to have a different type of relationship with the community than what we’d had before on Dreadnought,” said Jonathan Lindsay, Executive Producer at Yager Entertainment. “There’s been a lot of lessons learned from that, on a technical level, and also, we’ve gotten a lot of benefit out of the lessons we’ve learned from Epic on Fortnite, since they’ve worked on the Unreal Engine. The engine itself is really great for a live game and it supports that format really well.”

The Cycle is a PvPvE game (player-versus-player-versus-environment) that blends together different genres for a somewhat unorthodox approach to an online shooter. Landing on the hostile alien world Fortuna III, your character will have to explore the surface of the planet and collect resources to craft new gear to survive. In addition to fighting off the local wildlife, you’ll need to complete a number of contracts from your chosen faction in order to gain enough credits to call in better gear. However, you’ll also come across other players who are doing the same.

When reading that particular premise, it sounds like a game trying to take a crack at the battle royale genre. Though it features a very similar setup, complete with a map that has themed areas, The Cycle is not a battle royale game. Along with contending with dangerous alien creatures and tackling new missions thrown in during a match, you’ll need to actively collect materials to haul back to the extraction point. You’re certainly free to shoot other players on sight and try to take some of their resources, but you might be better off trying to form a squad with other players you can meet in the world.

The end goal is to make it to the extraction with your set of resources by the end of the match, but unlike other online shooters, multiple players can come away with a win. Resources kept with you during extraction can be used to craft new upgrades for your gear. These upgrades are persistent, allowing to you flesh out your character and loadouts, letting you bring a slightly more prepared character into the next game. However, you’ll still start fresh in every match, and you’ll need to collect credits to call-in the more high-end gear you’ve acquired.

The developers at Yager Entertainment state that The Cycle will be a community-driven game, with feedback collected from players helping to inform what comes next for the online game. At the end of this month, from March 28-30, a new alpha test will open up for players who sign up for access on the official site, allowing newcomers to check out what the online shooter has in store.

You need a javascript enabled browser to watch videos.

Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.

This video has an invalid file format.

Sorry, but you can’t access this content!

Whether you love him or hate him, John Cena has become a staple of Wrestlemania, since his main card debut at Wrestlemania XX. He’s put on high-profile matches, year after year, and the WWE wrestler has star power. However, Cena doesn’t have a match–yet–at this year’s PPV, and with Undertaker seemingly not in the picture anymore, Mania needs Cena. But who will the leader of Cenation fight at the biggest show of the year? Kurt Angle’s retirement match is against Baron Corbin–that’s a sentence I never thought I’d write. And all of WWE’s main players have been spoken for. That’s why I propose John Cena faces the most obvious choice of opponent at Mania this year, R-Truth. If you’re one of those wrestling fans that hates when WWE does anything remotely comedic, go watch the trailer for Avengers: Endgame again or something. This is not for you.

Wrestlemania is coming to PPV and the WWE Network on Sunday, April 7 at 4 PM PT / 7 PM ET, and it should be a pretty fantastic ending to a week of wrestling events. There, now there’s a buffer between the information I dropped on you and everything that follows because you’re probably in shock and yelling at your screen (shut up already), even though the headline of the piece completely lays out my agenda. There have been plenty of rumors stating the two will NOT face each other at Mania, even though it seems like the obvious conclusion. But will it be tough for Truth to pull double duty as the Host of Wrestlemania AND a competitor? Yes, I’m aware Alexa Bliss is the host. Roll with me, please.

Let’s dive into a little bit of history. Whether WWE likes it or not, they’ve been setting up this match for months. At the end of January this year, R-Truth won the United States Championship on Smackdown, in one of the weirdest finishes I’ve seen in years, which was meant to look like a ref botch (Mike Chioda don’t botch). I guess it was a way to transition the title without making Shinsuke Nakamura weak? It was a dumb finish, regardless, and made R-Truth start his run as a seemingly paper champion, which I hated.

R-Truth and Carmella’s “7-Second Dance Break” bit had run its course, and the new US Champion needed to add some more flavor to his character. A few weeks later, R-Truth transitioned his character into a new gimmick: the young wrestler who idolizes his heroes. It’s something we see time and time again. Young upstarts pay homage to the WWE superstars who got them interested in wrestling, like when Sasha Banks does the frog splash to honor Eddie Guerrero. However, as you probably figured out, R-Truth is older than John Cena, so what we’re left with is comedy gold. Enjoy one of the many fantastic segments from Truth and Carmella during this time.

What’s interesting about this non-feud-feud is that is goes back farther than this 2019 gimmick. Back in 2011, Truth interjected himself into the title picture when Cena was champion. This led to a solid segment of Truth destroying a merchandise booth because John Cena was everywhere. In the grand scheme of things, it was a short run but memorable nevertheless. In 2011, Truth hated Cena because he is everything he wanted to be. In 2019, Truth loves Cena because he is everything he wants to be. Personally, I think the latter makes for better storytelling, but I’m one of those annoying ’80s wrestling fans who gets way too hyped over a face vs. face match because they rarely happen. I like seeing the audience split when it comes to who they are cheering for.

Anyway, back to the present.

So R-Truth decided to hold the US open challenge like his childhood hero, John Cena. The promo he cut on March 5, right before losing the title, was hilarious and brilliant, as you can see below.. And, in a sense, he’s not doing anything exceptionally new. He’s just borrowing something we’ve seen younger superstars who are new to the company do and adding the Truth-flavor to it, which works exceptionally well.

I want to make a quick note. When Lacey Evans walks out–yes, I hate whatever is happening here too and want it to stop forever–look at Truth. He’s ready to fight her and does a crane kick. Bless you, Truth. Anyway, he takes the bit even further, copying Cena’s moves like the Five-Knuckle-Shuffle. R-Truth has always been a fun character when he’s working as a face. He makes really stupid ideas work exceptionally well, and it’s obvious he has fun doing it.

So let’s push it to the limit.

Why not have R-Truth face John Cena at Wrestlemania? What’s Cena doing that weekend that he can’t be in this match? What, is he filming a movie I’ll probably enjoy, and after I see it, I’ll tell all my friends, “Cena was a lot of fun in that one?” And yes, Cena vs. Truth may sound like a Kickoff Show match to you, and yes, the match card already has a lot of bouts booked, but why can’t we have something fun? Look at the match card. Every storyline building up to each of these matches is super-serious, and this new match could interject a lot of fun into the show.

Better yet, have R-Truth do a build towards Mania where he’s calling out John Cena, who never shows up to Smackdown–do you know where I am going with this yet? So R-Truth buys a ticket to attend the PPV as a fan. Then, Cena shows up, and R-Truth runs from the crowd to face him in the ring. “Mat, that’s what Cena did last year with Undertaker!” Yeah, I know, but this is perfect for R-Truth. It could also help me create more fire content like last year’s “Every Time WWE’s Cameras Cut To John Cena In The Crowd.” Click that. It’s the best.

Look, I’m already pretty excited for Wrestlemania, as this has been one of the best builds toward the event in years. But if you want to put this show really over the top and deliver a solid comedic spot that has been building up for months, book John Cena vs. R-Truth (you cowards). It’s the natural conclusion. And frankly, it’s a lot better than what R-Truth and Carmella seem to be doing which is “fake hosting Wrestlemania” and getting confused randomly throughout the evening. Who am I kidding? I’ll still enjoy that too.

Oh yeah, come to GameSpot on Sunday, April 7 for live coverage of Wrestlemania and a review of the show.